What Are You Buying Now?
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With everything going on (gestures wildly) , what are you buying now? What are you NOT buying? Are there companies you're boycotting, and others you're trying to support? How are tariffs, stock market volatility, possible recession, DOGE cuts, and more affecting your purchases right now?
I originally had in mind a discussion about “what triggers a buy right now” because I've noticed my own clothing and makeup purchases are somewhat different than they were six months ago — but as I started to think about it there are so many aspects to this. Are you building your pantry or buying a second freezer? Trying to buy a car or electronics before prices go up?
What and How I'm Buying in 2025
How My Clothing Purchases Have Changed
I find that, for me at least, I'm not interested in low budget or overly trendy stuff — I feel like my closet is kind of full of that from years past where a dress or top seemed very much au courant, but after a few wears it feels very much “six months ago.”
Instead, the stuff I'm buying tends to be higher quality stuff on sale — stuff where I think, “I'm not sure I need a $300 wool sweater right now, but if it comes and I love it then I'll be happy to have it.” But if I don't love it, odds are good it's going back.
What I'm Buying for Food and Staples
I can't say that I've made any crazy purchases of late for basics like toilet paper or mustard or anything — when I saw the Irish butter on sale recently I did buy a few bars of it, but that's about it. Then again, we tend to keep way too much in stock at any given time.
That said… we have been trying to focus on eating at home at Casa Griffin in lieu of a lot of Door Dash orders.
Electronics
Like I mentioned a while ago, I have a pretty old iPhone (12S mini if I recall correctly)… so I probably really should get one sooner rather than later. But that's 90% driven by “because it's old and has a lousy battery life,” and 10% driven by “it might cost $50 more next year.” I'm not encouraging my husband or parents to get new iPhones.
Stocks
As I've written about before, I generally like doing stop limit orders for times when I know the market will be volatile, and I did set up a few back in February — picking the lowest price in the last 12 months for a few individual stocks that I've had good luck with over the years. Those have almost all gone through at this point, but I'm not rushing to set up any more… we'll see how it goes.
Any money that we invest automatically is unchanged since before January, though.
Readers, how about you? What are you buying now, and how is the current climate (gestures wildly) affecting your purchases?
Stock photo via Stencil.
Will repost in a bit – I’m eyeing the Tumi Valetta tote, the Away Everywhere bag to replace a very heavy saffiano leather tote I bought for travel. I also want to FEEL more put-together – my current bag makes me feel like I’m schlepping things around poorly. It should be a non-leather carry-on, fit a 13-14″ laptop, have a water bottle pocket, and have a luggage sleeve and an optional shoulder straps and handles. This is primarily for day travel, or as the carry-on bag with a medium suitcase. Any comments on these, or other options?
I like Lo & Sons for this. I have the rowledge backpack (which also has handles) which is my carry on of choice in those scenarios, but have also used their OG bag which has a shoulder strap.
I bought the Away Everywhere bag and used it, like, twice. It’s just not big enough to be very useful to me.
I bought the Beis East West tote after crazily chatting up a woman using one in an airport not long ago. Perfect for a days that I have to shove all sorts of stuff in my bag just in case and be on the go morning to night.
This may be a bit more rugged than you are going for, but I love my Cotopaxi Allpa for this. In addition to crazy colors, they also come in all-black.
I’m not buying consumer goods that I don’t need; in fact I believe this whole talking point (buy it while you can) is intentionally pushed to combat lackluster consumer spending that existed even before the tariff chaos.
I’m not buying things I don’t need, but lately I’ve been much more wary of waiting until things are completely dead to replace them. We had a lot of issues with appliance availability when all of ours died one after another in 2022 and 2023. One of our cars was on its last legs so we replaced it right before the election even though it was still technically running.
I have been slowly working on buying what I know we will need this year from pre-tariff end of season sale stock. I am glad I did, the tariffs are far more aggressive than I thought they would be. I have also been slowly restocking the pantry; I had run it down to bare bones. I am glad I made the investment; we can hunker down for a while if we need to.